TMC junks ‘speculation’ of schism in party over rollback of parking fee by KMC

Kolkata: In the wake of reports suggesting a schism between the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the party’s senior leader and Mayor Firhad Hakim over the sudden rollback of increased parking fees, the party’s spokesperson has clarified that the matter is done and dusted.

The recent and sudden announcement by the party thanking the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) for a rollback of increased parking fees on a day when state government offices, including the civic body, was closed due to Good Friday, bamboozled many KMC officials who did not have an inkling of what was happening.

The announcement was made late evening by TMC on its Twitter handle, following intimation to the Press from the party’s spokesperson Kunal Ghosh who alleged that the Chief Minister was kept in the dark concerning the increase in parking fees by KMC. He asserted that it was to be withdrawn with immediate effect.

However, several KMC officials claimed that they were in the dark as to what was happening.

According to one official, till early evening no such decisions were made or announced by the KMC which like every state government department, needs to issue a notification to make something official.

Neither did any civic body official expect that such a decision will be taken on a day declared by the state government as a holiday “unless there was an emergency”, said a KMC source.

Reports surfaced that Mayor Firhad Hakim although agreed that any instructions coming from the Chief Minister need to be carried out, allegedly expressed his disappointment over the party taking the matter to the media rather than conveying it to him, personally.

Kunal Ghosh has but clarified that there exists no schism between the party and Hakim and regarded the latter as a senior party leader who works with responsibility.

It was further clarified that the matter is done and dusted and there is no bad blood between him and Hakim either.

Kunal said that he has acted strictly based on instructions from the party and hence there is no question of any “personal agenda”.

He also highlighted that, unlike BJP, TMC does not believe in burdening the people in times of financial distress.